Jackson launches outdoors camp
A young angler learns to fish during a Jackson County Parks and Recreation event. Donated photo
With a whole world of mountain beauty to explore, summer leaves no time to waste indoors.
At least, that’s the philosophy on which Lance Elzie, outdoor recreation manager for the Jackson County Parks and Recreation Department, has built a set of new summer camp offerings that will launch this year.
“We live in a beautiful place,” said Elzie. “We live in a place surrounded by national forest, surrounded by nature. It’s great to get kids outside and get them exploring and connecting.”
Participants in the Adventure Camp and Explorer Camp options will spend the entire five-day session roaming Western North Carolina in search of adventure. Each day, the kids’ parents will drop them off at the Cullowhee Recreation Center, where they will board a van equipped with a trailer full of gear. They’ll then set off for a pair of activities — one in the morning and one in the afternoon — designed to help them explore the mountains surrounding them.
“It’s a field trip camp,” said Elzie. “It’s field trips all day, every day for those five days.”
Field trips will include hiking, canoeing, stand up paddle boarding, ziplining and more. The two camps, which each include two sessions, will be mostly the same but for the age of those participating and the scale of the activities. Adventure Camp is for ages 13 to 15 and Explorer Camp is for kids 9 to 12. All campers will do basically the same activities, except the younger kids will likely take more breaks and do less difficult versions of the activities.
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“It’s going to be physical activity all day, and rest breaks, but being outside all day,” said Elzie. “If it rains we’ll still be outside. The idea is just to keep outside and active for that week.”
Elzie, who is now starting this third year with Jackson County, said he started the camps out of a desire to put the department’s increasing amounts of outdoor equipment to use and to offer more camp options outside of the Fun for Kids camp that the county has run for years.
“We have the resources,” he said, “so we might as well use them.”
Adventurers-in-training who want to join in on this summer of expeditions should act fast, though — with space limited by equipment and van space, each session can accept only eight campers.
“We’re really trying to ramp things up this year for our outdoor programs,” Elzie said.
Adventure Camp, open to ages 13-15, is $200 and will be July 16-20 and Aug. 13-15. Explorer Camp, open to ages 9-12, is $175 and will be June 11-15 and July 30 to Aug. 3. Learn more at jcprd.recdesk.com or contact Elzie at 828.200.3345.
